2020 Census and Redistricting Thread: California

[H. Ross Peron]

How did CA-48 become more GOP while losing south OC and becoming more working class?

It picked up Asian cities that swung heavily to Trump such as Westminster.

Also lost Laguna Beach which is a liberal enclave in coastal Orange County going back decades due to a large artistic and gay community.

[H. Ross Peron]

The more I look at it, the more I dislike it. Especially don't like how Porter's seat is weakened by splitting about Irvine. I would just shore up one of Steele or Kim than risk losing Porter in exchange for a boring Rouda or an abomination like Cisneros. As a resident of CA-46, I think its time our district was split up. There's no need for an OC Dem vote sink anymore and Anaheim is more tied to other North County cities and Santa Ana with Central County cities than with each other.

[H. Ross Peron]

Overall this seems like a pretty good map. It seems pretty fair from both a COI perspective and partisanship standpoint. A reminder this is still a really early map just to give us a general idea; I bet a lot of issues that have been continually brought up about things such as Sacramento being laid out weird will come to the Commission's attention.

While some of the SoCal districts visually look ugly, you have to remember SoCal geography is kinda weird because you got really dense urban areas next to mountains where no one lives, meaning in some of these districts it's really just attached mountains causing most of the ugliness. Some of it is also to maximize minority representation too.

Also nice to see this Commission unanimously agreed to this map at least to start; it hasn't become a partisan mess.

Atlas just needs to remember this is an Independent Commission, and doing things like Cracking Sants Anna to try and make more likely/safe D seats in SoCal is not their job, it's to make a fair map taht tries it's best to represent all communities in an incredibly complex state.

Unpacking CA-46 by separating Anaheim from Santa Ana surely involves less splitting communities of interest than splitting up Irvine.

[H. Ross Peron]

CA-45 loses western Irvine to CA-48 and takes in Yorba Linda on the latest draft. Who might run in CA-45?

Young Kim, esp since she wants to avoid a primary battle with Steel presumably.

[H. Ross Peron]

Sadhwani is the obvious Dem hack on the commission.

https://twitter.com/eqca/status/1469467044231860224

Seems like a large part of her map proposal came from this one.

Just eyeballing it, that orange coastal district would seem to be pretty overpopulated.

[H. Ross Peron]

Sadhwani is the obvious Dem hack on the commission.

https://twitter.com/eqca/status/1469467044231860224
Seems like a large part of her map proposal came from this one.

More than just her. Check out some of the others, for instance:

Isra is currently a Senior Research Evaluation Specialist with Santa Clara County’s Division of Equity and Social Justice. In this role, she leads the intersectional research efforts across the 7 different offices within the Division: Offices of Women’s Policy, Immigrant Relations, Cultural Competency, Labor Standard Enforcement, LGBTQ Affairs, 2020 Census and Gender-Based Violence Prevention. Previously, Isra served as the lead evaluator for the County’s Tobacco Control Program. She has worked for over 9 years in the community organizing, research and policy, to address the inequities related to adverse health impacts from tobacco products in a variety of places including, California Youth Advocacy Network, Stanford Prevention Research Center, Tobacco Related Disease Research Program at the University of California Office of the President, The Truth Initiative and her academic alma maters. Isra earned her A.A. from De Anza Community College, her B.S. in Health Science from San José State University, and her Masters in Public Health in Epidemiology/Biostatistics from U.C. Berkeley. In her free time, Isra enjoys hiking and spending time with her family and friends. She is registered to vote as No Party Preference and lives in San José.

A "independent" who works for the Santa Clara County Division of Equity and Social Justice

Linda Akutagawa is President and CEO of LEAP (Leadership Education for Asian Pacifics). A passionate social entrepreneur for over 25 years and beneficiary of LEAP’s leadership programming, she is a believer in the value, and urgent need, for diverse, equitable, and inclusive leadership. Through LEAP, Linda has dedicated herself to continuing the cycle of leadership development and inspiring Asian and Pacific Islanders to step up to leadership roles across sectors, industries, and communities.

She is the Chair of the Alliance for Board Diversity and an appointed member of the California Department of Insurance Diversity Task Force. She is also a member of the Asian/Asian American Institute Advisory Board at California State University at Los Angeles as well as a Board member of the Asian Pacific Planning and Policy Council.

She’s a nationally recognized speaker and facilitator on leadership, diversity, equity, and inclusion, nonprofits, and board governance. Linda received her B.S. in International Business with a minor in Economics from California State University at Los Angeles. She has a Certificate in Nonprofit Board Consulting through Boardsource. She is married and a furmom to her cockapoo and aunty to eleven nephews and nieces. She is registered as No Party Preference.

Another "independent" who leads the "Alliance for Board Diversity" and is a member of a state diversity task force.

A century ago, Dr. Yee’s ancestors left southern China for “Gum Saan” (“Gold Mountain”). They settled in Oakland, where his parents and then he and his brothers were all born and raised.

He graduated from Oakland High School, UC Berkeley (BS), Dallas Theological Seminary (ThM), and the Graduate Theological Union (PhD), where his research focused on sociolinguistic aspects of liturgical and free worship. He has taught mostly for Fuller Theological Seminary and especially enjoys teaching his class on Oakland for St. Mary’s College.

He’s the author of Worship on the Way (2012), which explores worship in Asian and South East Asian North American churches. He pastored a church for ten years and is active in his present multicultural church community, which wrestles tangibly with matters of social justice, class & race, cultural contextualization, community redevelopment, crime & safety, recovery, re-entry, and homelessness.

He’s a longtime history docent at the Oakland Museum of California, with a special interest in the state’s indigenous peoples. He was the first board secretary for Habitat for Humanity East Bay (now East Bay/Silicon Valley). An avid marathon runner, he volunteers with Running for a Better Oakland, a youth sports and scholarship program.

He lives in Oakland with his wife, Dr. Lisa Yee, who is a physician at a community health center. He is registered with the Republican Party.

A "Republican" who "wrestles tangibly with matters of social justice, class & race, cultural contextualization, community redevelopment, crime & safety, recovery, re-entry, and homelessness."

Oh, and fun follow-up: Sadhwani literally has Latinx in her bio

Sara Sadhwani is an assistant professor of politics at Pomona College specializing in American politics, racial and ethnic politics, and public policy. Her research has been published in the peer reviewed journals such as the Journal of Politics, Political Behavior, California Journal of Politics and Policy, and Politics, Groups, and Identities. Her analysis of Asian American and Latinx voting behavior in California elections has been featured in the Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, Vox, NBC News, HuffPost and many others.

I intentionally didn't mention any of the Democrats here but when 2 of your independents are openly very left wing and one of your Republicans is clearly a Republican-In-Name-Only it should be no surprise that the commission is drawing maps like this.

If the commission actually wanted to draw a D gerrymander, then they wouldn't be leaving Issa in a winnable seat and moving Porter's seat well to the right.

I mean I don't think they're drawing a crazy map or anything but giving Porter a Biden +11 seat that she may lose anyway doesn't mean it's a fair map just because that seat might vote red in 2022. The commission is cutting an R seat in Fresno, cutting an R seat in Northern LA (admittedly, the Northern LA thing is a lot more justifiable), and turning a red district into a purple swinging left seat in Riverside. In other words, they're taking a 41-7-5 map and turning it into a 43-6-3. Now, admittedly, Republicans might still win some of those 43 blue seats in 2022 -- ie, SAVANAANA and NOCOAST, and SAVANAANA I could see getting redder by the end of the decade, but this is definitely a D leaning map.

Why do you think it will get redder?

[H. Ross Peron]

Katie Porter is running in the Biden+11 coastal seat.

Doesn't Michelle Steel live in that district too? I would guess if she does she moves to greener pastures.

CA-45, the Asian plurality, less Democratic district next door, seems like it would be a better fit for Steel if she wanted to move elsewhere.

I assume Young Kim will run in the Yorba Linda seat. right? It is the least Asian of the three competitive OC districts though.

I dont think it particularly matters and it would be irrational for the two Republican incumbents to battle out over the same seat when there is an open seat and Young Kim would have to move to run in either of them.